Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Volatile economic times call for a bigger emergency fund. It
would pay to have enough cash to pay for a year to 2 years’ worth of expenses.
Easier said than done for the vast majority of people, but if you are in a
position to do it by all means do so. On another note, you should have a decent
emergency fund before you invest in stocks.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

One way to keep track of whether or not you live within your
means is to do a personal income statement. Take what you make each payday or
time period such as a month and subtract what you spend. If the number is
positive, then you are spending less than you earn. If that number is negative
you are either leaning on savings or credit to prop you up. If it is negative,
you need to figure out a way to earn more and/or spend less. It’s preferable to
make more and spend less.

Monday, March 7, 2016

When researching a publicly traded company, it always pays
to read the annual letter to shareholders. It can tell you a great deal about
the qualitative characteristics of a company. Of course, this isn’t the only
thing you should do in your research, but it represents one important
component.

Friday, March 4, 2016

Just because
a company beats Wall Street estimates doesn’t necessarily mean that it expanded its
fundamentals for the quarter or that it makes a great investment over
the long term. Conversely, just because a company doesn't beat Wall Street estimates
doesn’t necessarily mean that a company is seeing degrading fundamentals or that investors
stand to lose everything over the long term. Always dig deeper.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

It pays to read to the bottom of any article, document,
paper, etc. when researching stocks. Sometimes the best information occurs
somewhere in the middle of the discourse or sometimes near the bottom.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

When investing in stocks it’s important to think about how
the business behind the stock will do 5-10 years down the road. Don’t think about what the stock price is
going to do over the next few days, weeks or even months.